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Bookstores Worth A Trip

Couldn't find anything at the airport to inspire you? That's just as well if you're going to be anywhere near these English-language favorites, recommended by our well-traveled jury.

Almost Corner

Rome

45 Via del Moro; 39-06-583-6942

The place is famous with expats for good reason. "It's stuffed floor-to-ceiling with paperbacks," says Anthony Doerr, "and the owner, Dermot O'Connell, has good advice on everything from Chaucer to cioccolaterias."

Asia Books

Bangkok

11 locations; 66-2-252-7277

This sleek chain, heavy on the white curves, has its share of tourist-friendly coffee table volumes as well as an abundance of translated Lao, Cambodian, and Thai books that you'd have trouble finding elsewhere.

Books@Café

Amman, Jordan

Jabal Amman, near 1st Circle; 962-6-4650-457

One of the bestand most Westernizedbookstores in the Middle East, "it's a friendly and informal place with a mishmash of mostly used titles," says Matthew Sharpe. It also has a beautiful terrace.

"A wonderful old bookshop," says Peter Godwin, with its own rare Africana room, wood floors, Deco chairs, and an owner (Henrietta Dax) who treks through southern Africa bartering for new finds.

Crossword

Mumbai, India

Many locations; 91-22-2384-2001; crosswordbookstores.com

Before Crossword, most Indian bookstores had "all the charm of a state-controlled liquor counter, with browsing actively discouraged," says Manil Suri. Although it's now a huge chain, "it continues to be a pioneer."

Robinson Crusoe

Istanbul

195 Istikal Caddesi; 90-212-293-6968

In a city crawling with specialty bookstores, this narrow wood-and-glass expat hive is by far the favorite for its well-selected general collection featuring many Turkish treasures in translation.

Sefer Ve Sefel

Jerusalem

2 Yavetz Street; 972-2624-8237

This jam-packed secondhand shop off Jaffa Street will purchase its own stock back from you. "Before Amazon, before everything, I used to buy all my books there," says author Nathan Englander, who lived in Jerusalem.

Shakespeare & Company

Paris

37 rue de la Bücherie; 33-1-43-25-40-93

This 56-year-old literary-expat gathering place has all the advantages of a long-lived institution with the intimacy of a family shop. The owner, George Whitman, famously puts up visiting writers in his store.